


Batman Needs a Robin

by UltimateSaturn



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Robin (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Origin Story, F/M, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Suicide
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-04
Updated: 2019-10-04
Packaged: 2020-11-23 20:20:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20895548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UltimateSaturn/pseuds/UltimateSaturn
Summary: Tim Drake is a smart young man, so smart that he figured out the secret identity of The Batman. After Bruce begins to lose his ways Tim vows to remind him what he's fighting for. This is an alternate origin story for Tim Drake dealing with many mature themes.





	Batman Needs a Robin

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone thanks for reading this fic, this will be an in-depth version of Tim's origin, involving several more characters and plots. I hope you enjoy, and please check the tags as some content may be triggering to some readers, so discretion is advised.

Blüdhaven an outer borough of Gotham City that near enough had its own identity, the shops and markets had an odd sense of warmness that seemed alien after coming from the streets where making mere eye contact with a stranger can cause you to go to through the 5 stages of grief. At least those were the thoughts that ran through the young man’s head as he stepped off the train and took in the overcast neighbourhoods of Wolfman Heights, the area that he had gotten off at. Despite all that he thought before the distinctly Gotham smell that emanated from the drains and dumpsters made the boy smile. He wasn’t that far from home.

His destination was only a short walk from the elevated train station, as his dark grey messenger bag swayed in the mild mind along with his soft black between seasons jacket he double checked information written down in a red notebook amending some details as he stumbled into an old man. 

He came upon a relatively boring apartment building made of brick. He opened the front door where he found no intercom or any other form of security. The old lady at the desk to the side seemed to be nodding off, just acknowledging the boy with a nod before returning to reading her magazine. Despite being noticeably out of his element he went up the stairs to the second floor to the apartment of a man he had been dreaming of seeing again for a long time. 

After stumbling over his own motions, he eventually knocked lightly on the door, he stood back after and fumbled with his keys as he waited. Perhaps he knocked too softly? He thought, but before he could ponder further the brown painted door opened sharply to reveal a tall man in his mid-20s wearing a grey sweatshirt and black running shorts. His rather toned frame could even be seen through the loose clothing, it didn’t stop at his body either as his square jaw and near-perfect facial features complemented by admittedly messy but striking hair could make anyone swoon. 

“Hi there, how can I help you?” came the cheerful voice of the older man as he looked the boy up and down.

“You’re uh Dick Grayson, aren’t you?” Came the small but sharp voice of the boy. “My name is Tim Drake” He stammered while extending his hand.

“Nice to meet you Tim”, Dick greeted while shaking his hand 

“I need to talk to you about Bruce Wayne” Tim explained with more refined composure.

“You wanna talk to me about my foster father?” Dick asked suspiciously.

“Yeah… uh, can I come in? I think it’d be best if no one heard this” He asked while fighting a smirk.

“… Sure kid” Dick said after considering his options for a second before stepping aside and letting Tim into his kitchen. He closed and locked the door whilst taking another more analytical look at the boy.

Tim was dressed as if he had stayed in his edgy phase a couple of years too long, which was funny given his soft face, black converse, ripped skinny jeans and jacket that reminded Dick of the bands he used to listen to when younger, even his hair was jet black and in a punk-looking bed head. The only other colour beyond the grey bag was a burgundy t-shirt and a silver chain that hung around his hip. 

Dick’s apartment was no dump, but it was obvious that a young bachelor with very little experience of taking care of himself lived there, an overflowing laundry bag in the corner of the living room, a paused video game on the TV as well as a picture of Dick and some old friends of his, a few of which Tim knew a lot about already.

“By the way do your parents know that you’re here?” Dick asked with a smile as he leant against the kitchen table crossing his arms.

“I’m 17” Tim replied while taking his bag off and bringing out his notebook on the kitchen table.

“Still a minor, anyways are you trying to score a scholarship or something?” Dick asked after examining the heaps of books that came out of the bag and onto his clean wooden table.

“No, look… I uh…. There’s no easy way to say this….” Tim stuttered.

“Just say it” Dick cut him off softly dreading the answer.

“……. I know that Bruce is Batman and you used to be Robin.” Tim said looking Dick plainly in the eye.

Dick had prepared for every conceivable event regarding him and Bruce’s activities for years, but no amount of training could hide the split-second expression his eyes gave off after hearing the words leave the kid’s mouth, which was all he needed as confirmation. False laughter overtook Dick, not impressing Tim in the slightest. 

“What are you talking about?” Dick asked in a more serious manner whilst still trying to keep up the jokey persona.

“15 years ago, Bruce Wayne returned to Gotham after years abroad, and in the same month Batman showed up,”

“Coincidence” Dick replied sharply.

“A year later he adopted you after your parents died in Haly’s Circus” Tim continued.

“So what?” Dick interjected

“A report of a young kid fighting with Batman that same week and 6 years later Robin showed up, who is estimated to be at the same age as you were at that time. A few years later Robin activity drops for a few months probably cause that’s when you went to College but then it picks back up off and on which coincides with semester breaks, but then a year later Robin is back with Batman in nearly all sightings which is also around the same time Bruce adopted Jason Todd. And finally, a few years later Robin activity dropped completely when Jason…. yeah.” Tim spoke quicker than Dick could keep up, but he didn’t need to hear everything to understand that Tim had cracked everything, a feat that no one had managed to before.

After taking a deep breath to adjust to all the information dumped in his face, Dick finally managed to speak whilst giving Tim a cold look in the eye. “In my profession, everything you just said is hearsay, and these are coincidences spaced years apart.”

“That’s not all of them.” Tim opened several notebooks filled with dates and descriptions going back several years of close calls, analyses and other occurrences that point to the truth.

“You can connect this stuff to thousands of people who match the descriptions” Dick hopelessly spoke up whilst combing through the books.

“I was at Haly’s circus when your parents…. I was a huge Dick Grayson fan. You participated in Gymnastic competitions for years afterwards, your movements are almost like a fingerprint, I could tell it was you in old Youtube videos of the two of you fighting bad guys.” Tim said softly, being careful to dance around the darker subjects.

“Why are you here?” Dick said after clapping the book shut and looking at Tim with near menacing eyes.

“Batman…. Bruce…. He’s changed, he’s not the same as he was before. He’s not pulling his punches like he used to, he’s becoming something else. It’s been getting worse bit by bit ever since what happened with Jason.” Tim stammered but eventually looking Dick seriously in the eyes by the end.

Dick couldn’t say a word, he was speechless.

“Without Robin, Batman doesn’t work, and he’s gonna end up doing something he’s gonna regret and everything that symbol means will vanish… You need to go back to him; you need to be Robin again.” Tim said quietly.

“……You believe in him, a lot…. But I don’t, not anymore. Bruce Wayne is not my responsibility. What he does or doesn’t do is none of my damn business.” Dick spoke with utter seriousness as he stood up and took a step towards Tim. The warm exterior was gone, which on some level broke Tim’s heart. “You are going to go back to wherever you came from, and never mention a word of this conversation to anyone ever again!” Dick Commanded.

In a few short seconds, Dick had packed up all of Tim’s belongings into his bag and tossed it into his arms and grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him towards the door. 

“Seeya kid,” Dick said whilst making sure he had gone out the door.

“You don’t get it, you need to do this, without you…. Batman needs a Robin!” Tim said while looking up at Dick through the doorway.

“Well, I’m not Robin anymore,” Dick said to the boy before slamming the door in his face. 

Tim stood back and sighed as he slung his bag over his shoulder and proceeded to slowly walk down the hallway with his head down.

Miagani Island was the largest of Gotham’s 5 islands, so large in fact you could live your whole life there and never get bored of all the different streets and boulevards with what felt like everchanging shops and establishments. However, being so large had tradeoffs, the chief of which was the constant loud clattering of the trains that sped all throughout the island keeping people awake at all hours of the night. This was a good cover for the numerous criminal organizations that made Gotham their home. 

It was also the home of the Major Crimes Division of the GCPD. Inside the stairwell of the facility Cpt. Harvey Bullock a burly Italian gentleman sporting a fedora and grey overcoat was escorting a newbie to the roof Dt. Renee Montoya a younger Hispanic woman wearing a worn-out GCPD windbreaker with an exhausted expression on her face.

“If the plan was to do some kind of dumb initiation, I’m going to punch you down this staircase,” Montoya said whilst grunting.

“Look, you are someone the big guy trusts, so you get to be here,” Bullock responded as they got to the final flight.

“You mean the commissioner? I’ve met him before once or twice, didn’t think I made that big of an impression.

“Not the guy I was talking about,” Bullock said with a smirk as he opened the door to the roof to reveal the commissioner standing by the large and ever-iconic Batsignal as it broke through the city’s skyline. 

He shut the signal down just as they arrived.

“Just missed him,” Gordon smiled to himself whilst stepping down from the signal and lighting a cigarette.

“Sorry had to wait for Montoya to get back from her raid,” Bullock said whilst removing his hat and leaning against the fence at roof’s edge. 

“Shows she’s committed, good idea bringing her in.” The commissioner said while unbuttoning his large overcoat.

“The rumours are true, you do you with vigilantes,” Renee said in bewilderment whilst stepping towards the shut down light and then turned back to Gordon.

“Only the ones I trust,” Jim said with a warm fatherly like smile as he exhaled a large amount of smoke, which did little to ease Renee’s conscious.

“Look rookie, there was a time where I would’ve sold out my badge to bag that pointy-eared freak. But he’s good especially when dealing with punks like Scarface.” Bullock explained. 

“Scarface?” Montoya asked.

Scarface was a mob boss who was known for arms dealing around the south of the island, but he was now moving his business further up which was gaining the attention of his primary competitor, Oswalt Cobblepot, The Penguin. 

3 large semi-trucks full of weapons were being transported through the busy streets which made smaller vehicles quake in their presence as they barreled through. They eventually came to a parking garage where they came to a hault, the near vacant garage was so silent a pin could drop from across the floor and it could be heard. Despite the space the drivers needed to move their trucks to be in the right parking position for the pickup later that night. As the sky turned an ominous red the drivers stepped out of their vehicles still on high alert if anything were to happen. The three men stepped towards the exit when, one by one, they each fell to the ground as a tranq dart landed in each of their necks making them collapse before even realizing what was happening. 

In the corner of the garage, a group of mercenaries revealed themselves from the shadow, one of which was holding a tranquilizer rifle. The 6 of them were all heavily armed and stepped towards the trucks smiling to themselves.

“Scarface cheaped out on his guys eh?” One of the mercenaries said to the others as he slung his rifle behind him causing the rest of them to chuckle.

“About to say the same thing about Penguin” A raspy voice interjected, the mercenaries turned around to see half a dozen or so of Scarface’s thugs all as heavily armed as them. It seems like this was a trap.

In an instant the two factions charged at one another waving their guns and knives in all directions, stray bullets littered the walls of the garage and wrecked a few windshields of the few cars remaining in the garage. The thugs were brutally beating one another with the ends of their rifles, barely even giving each other time to think before their windpipes were crushed. 

Whilst this was happening unannounced to them a high-tech black jet elevated itself to hover just outside of the level of the parking garage that the fight was taking place, as the lights of the jet drew their attention it fired off 3 canisters into the crowd. The canisters then emitted smoke to blanket them all removing their field of vision. A Penguin thug removed his foot from the throat of his enemy to step back and examine the situation but before he could think a hand clad in black held onto his neck and pulled him into the smoky depths. The assailant clad in grey and black armour with pointed ears and a long black cape manoeuvred through the smoke using heat vision to navigate to his prey. He pulled out a bat-shaped boomerang and threw it at a few enemies, knocking their guns out of their hands and eventually lodging itself in one of their wrists. He proceeded to take a couple of shots to the armour in his chest as he tackled one more to the ground As the screams echoed across the garage, they were subsequently cut off by the grunts and thuds of them all being knocked to the ground by the attacker. One mercenary chose to flee but his leg was pulled back with a grapnel line and he tugged back into the mist causing his nails to scratch the concrete. 

As the smoke cleared the unconscious bodies of the thugs littered the ground, giving off moans every other minute due to the pain that they had been dealt. Their attacker stepped forward into the light with his glowing white eye lenses that could make the most hardened soldier quake in fear. It was The Batman.

The caped crusader stomped over to one of the semi-trucks and found a laptop on the dashboard which was password protected.

“I trust it went smoothly master Bruce” Came the near condescending voice of Alfred over the earpiece in Batman’s cowl.

“There’s a laptop in the truck that probably contains the shipping manifests, I need to see who was buying these,” Batman said whilst taking the laptop towards the Batwing, stepping on a hand of one of the thugs along the way.

“Probably?” Alfred asked whilst he ate a cereal bar in his seat in the Batcave.

“It’s a Kord laptop, their encryption is too good, I’m going to take it to someone who can crack it,” Batman said whilst sitting in the pilot seat and powering up the engines.

“You could just phone Mr Kord,” Alfred interjected.

“Honestly Alfred, I don’t have the patience to deal with his stupidity, I’m taking it to Oracle.”


End file.
